Twitter

Twitter signs deal with NFL to live stream Thursday Night Football

In a flurry of news this morning, it would appear that Twitter has won a deal with the NFL that gives the social network the right to stream Thursday Night Football live on the platform. Beyond the live stream of the game, the partnership will also include pre-game Periscope broadcasts from players and teams, as […]

Twitter makes it easier to share tweets privately with new button on iOS and Android

Twitter makes it easier to share tweets privately with new button on iOS and Android

While nowhere near as big as this morning’s news that Twitter will live stream the NFL’s Thursday Night Football, the company is announcing another change to its service today aimed at increasing the functionality and usage of its Direct Message (private messaging) feature. Starting today, the company is adding a new “Message” button to tweets […]

Microsoft AI bot Tay returns to Twitter, goes on spam tirade, then back to sleep

Microsoft AI bot Tay returns to Twitter, goes on spam tirade, then back to sleep

Near a week after being silenced because the internet taught her to be racist, Microsoft’s artificial intelligence bot “Tay” briefly returned to Twitter today, whereon she went on a spam tirade and then quickly fell silent again. Tay was created by the Microsoft Technology and Research and Bing teams in an effort to conduct research on conversational understanding, […]

Why it’s so easy to ignore your to-do list app but get distracted by Twitter

Why it’s so easy to ignore your to-do list app but get distracted by Twitter

I’ve spent the past month in a daze, trying to make sense of my own tasks and responsibilities while forcing myself to adhere to a system I came up with that simply doesn’t work. You can never anticipate how your “perfectly designed” task-management system can fail. It’s our own nature — we’re so sure of ourselves — […]

Twitter makes its service more accessible to the visually impaired

Twitter makes its service more accessible to the visually impaired

Twitter this morning announced an effort to make its service more accessible to those who are visually impaired. Specifically, the company is now allowing users to add descriptions to images known as “alternative text,” or “alt text.” This lets people who are taking advantage of assistive technology, including screen readers and braille displays, the chance to hear […]

Live is having a moment

Live is having a moment

Twitter, which turned 10 this week, has apparently made Live its entire organizing principle. At an all-hands meeting last month, Mark Zuckerberg declared live video a top priority for Facebook. Clearly, Zuck’s directing his fight toward Twitter’s Periscope, a mobile live streaming app which itself competed fiercely with Meerkat. Amazon is expanding its recently acquired […]

Pro-ISIS Hacker Group Video Threatens Twitter, Facebook CEOs Over Account Suspensions

Pro-ISIS Hacker Group Video Threatens Twitter, Facebook CEOs Over Account Suspensions

Twitter and Facebook have recently claimed to be stepping up their fights against extremist content being hosted on their platforms. Indeed, there is some evidence that certain tactics to counter extremists’ appropriation of mainstream social media platforms — such as Twitter deploying repeat account suspensions — is having an impact on the spread of extremist propaganda. Earlier […]

Twitter Ended Up Paying $479M For Adtech Startup TellApart, 10-K Reveals

Twitter Ended Up Paying $479M For Adtech Startup TellApart, 10-K Reveals

Twitter’s largest acquisition to date, of the adtech business TellApart, has turned out to be a little less big than originally thought. Back in April 2015, it was calculated that Twitter would pay nearly $533 million for TellApart based on the company’s share price at the time. But a 10-K report published today notes the final numbers: It was nearly $54 million lower, […]

Buffer Adds Twitter-Based Customer Service Tools

Buffer Adds Twitter-Based Customer Service Tools

Buffer is best known as a scheduling tool to help marketing teams schedule content on social media, but with the acquisition of Respondly, it signaled a plan to expand its repertoire to also cover customer service users. One of Buffer’s claims to fame is its policy of radical openness, which continued in its process for making its […]